This invention relates generally to fishing lures and more particularly to a surface-type fishing lure designed to attract and catch large mouth bass.
In order to catch large mouth bass, it is necessary that a fishing lure first attract fish to it and then encourage them by its "action" to strike at it. Large mouth bass feed on insects and other living creatures that have fallen onto the surface of the water. When an insect or other living creature falls onto the surface of the water, it usually creates a disturbance either because it is injured or because it is trying to swim in order to escape from the water. The disturbance at the water's surface is what attracts the large mouth bass to its prey. Experienced fishermen thus know that in order to attract large mouth bass to a fishing lure, it is necessary for the fishing lure's action to simulate the action of a living creature that has accidentially fallen onto the surface of water and is trying to escape from the water.
In order to simulate the action of an injured insect or other living creature on the surface of a water, lures for large mouth bass are of the so called surface-type. Surface-type lures are cast into a particularly advantageous spot and then retrieved along the surface of the water much as an insect or living creature would try to swim along the surface of the water. The turbulance created by the lures results in both noise and highlights at the water's surface. The noise and the flashing highlights at the surface attract the large mouth bass and encourage them to strike at the lure. In addition the body of the lure adjacent the hook is constructed to give the appearance of an insect and to camouflage the hook.
The prior surface-type lures for large mouth bass have provided for turbulance in a variety of ways including spoons, blades, propellors, and spinners attached to the lures. In that regard the following patents are of interest: Dubois U.S. Pat. No. 4,037,345; Shannon U.S. Pat. No. 4,033,065; Haddock U.S. Pat. No. 3,747,256; Shannon U.S. Pat. No. 3,257,750; and Shannon U.S. Pat. No. 1,547,,619.
Of particular interest is Jackson U.S. Pat. No. 3,093,923. The Jackson patent provides a shank with a hook attached to its rear end. A skirt is attached adjacent to the hook to camouflage the hook. A spoon is attached to the shank forward of the skirt to provide turbulence during retrieval. At the forward end of the shank there is an eyelet for attaching the fishing line and an upwardly and rearwardly extending arm with a propellor rotatably attached thereto. As the Jackson lure is retrieved by the fisherman, the propellor is driven by the water flow and causes the lure to plane to the surface of the water. The propeller also helps create the required turbulance with the attending noise and flashing highlights in the water. The Jackson lure has been over the past several years a successful commercial product, but it suffers one significant drawback. Because of the weight and weight distribution of the Jackson lure, it is necessary, in order to keep the lure on the surface, to retrieve the Jackson lure at a fairly high rate of speed, much faster than a living insect or creature might swim if it had accidentially fallen onto the water's surface. Moreover, the Jackson lure requires nearly three or four feet of retrieval before it actually breaks the water's surface initially. As a result, it is necessary to cast the Jackson lure several feet beyond the spot where the fisherman would expect the large mouth bass to be lying in wait to feed. Sometimes, where the bass feed near the shoreline, there is no extra room beyond the feeding hole for the Jackson lure to be cast.